282 SHARP-TAILED FINCH. 



sects or Crustacea, as well as on the seeds of the grasses growing on the 

 grounds which they inhabit. 



Within a few years this species has extended its range towards the 

 eastern portions of the Union, as far as the vicinity of Boston, perhaps 

 farther. I doubt, however, that they ever reach the State of Maine and 

 the British provinces, chiefly because the shores of those countries are 

 rocky, and because very few salt marshes are to be met with there. 

 None were seen by me in Newfoundland, Labrador, or the intervening- 

 islands. 



The young birds of this species are considerably lighter in the tints 

 of their plumage, during winter, than their parents. Some shot on the 

 11th of December, in the neighbourhood of Charleston in South Caro- 

 lina, were so pale as almost to tempt one to pronounce them of a different 

 species. At that period, the mornings were very cold, the ground being 

 covered with a thick white frost. So very intent are they on visiting the 

 interior of the broadest salt-marshes, that on returning, when the tide de- 

 clined, to the same banks where we had seen so many at the time of flow- 

 ing, we could scarcely find an individual. They are, however, less ad- 

 dicted to search into the muddy recesses along the creeks and bayous than 

 the Sea-side Finches. 



The nest is placed on the ground, as represented in my plate, at the 

 distance of a few feet from high-water mark, and generally in a place re- 

 sembling a portion of a newly mown meadow. A slight hollow is scraped, 

 in which are placed the delicate grasses forming the nest, disposed rather 

 loosely in a circular form. The eggs are from four to six, rather small, 

 dull white, sprinkled with light brown dots, more numerous towards the 

 greater end. About Cape May and Great Egg Harbour, two broods are 

 usually raised in a season ; but from the immense numbers seen in 

 autumn, when they begin to congregate, I am inclined to believe that in 

 many instances they have three broods in the same year, especially in 

 South Carolina and Georgia. I saAV none of these birds on the eastern 

 coast of the Floridas. They are most easily shot on the wing, for while 

 among the sedges and tall grasses, they move with great celerity, gliding 

 from one blade to another, or suddenly throwing themselves amid the 

 thickest parts of the weeds, where it is impossible to see them. 



